HUGIN AND MUNIN AND ODIN’S EYE

HUGIN AND MUNIN AND ODIN’S EYE, by Colleen Anderson, with audio by the author

 

 

Ravens always follow their whims

independent thinkers given to hijinks

wayward flights to their fancy

 

Hugin and Munin were Odin’s eyes

though he only gave up one for knowledge

 

Hugin flew straight over fields

reaching far searching wide

scouting that which could not be seen

from the vantage of a human eye

 

For Odin had cast his gaze

so distant that only giants could elude

its ray to remind that gods are fallible

beings made of grandiose desire

 

When Odin sacrificed part of himself

he then sought completion for faults

enhanced by immortal instruments

 

To be all-seeing, Odin wished to peer

in all directions whether Midgard or Asgard

so breathed life into night’s hidden wishes

two inky creatures to see beyond the shades

 

Hugin winged on, gathered thoughts

those he found inert, floating aboveground

and Odin’s decree cast him far

to reap the essence of humanity

as it trailed away, a snuffed candles’ trail

 

Munin launched from Odin’s shoulder

moving behind, backward seeking

for thoughts that lived in the past

as memory, but also as desire

dreams to exist for a better future

 

So it was that the ravens

spread their feathered cloaks

blankets of smothering incandescence

that covered the worlds

as they flew hunting for Odin’s eye

or other juicy eggs to swallow

 

But ravens have a mind of their own

two eyes where only one was needed

to aid Odin’s view into the human mind

Hugin and Munin flew on an indirect path

leaving their caul upon the land

filling their bellies with entrails of the fallen

before giving Odin his daily reports

skewed by a bird’s eye view

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Colleen Anderson’s poems have been published in numerous venues such as Mirror Dance, Shadow Atlas, The Future Fire, and HWA Poetry Showcase. She is a multiple Pushcart, Aurora, Rhysling and Dwarf Stars Award nominee. Colleen lives in Vancouver, BC and is a Canada Council and BC Arts Council grant recipient for writing and has performed her work before audiences in the US, UK and Canada. Her fiction collection can be found in A Body of Work, Black Shuck Books, and her new poetry collection, I Dreamed a World, is available from LVP Publications.